September 11th United Flight 93 Passenger. He was one of the passengers who gained widespread acclaim for his part in thwarting Al-Qaeda fundamentalist Islamic terrorists from crashing United Flight 93 into a target in Washington, DC that was believed to have been the White House. The founder of a public relations firm with offices in San Francisco, California and New York City, New York, he was returning home when his plane was hijacked by the terrorists. It is widely believed that Bingham and other passengers attacked the hijackers, having heard reports about the terrorist attacks in Washington, DC and New York. Before they acted, he called his mother from a phone and told her that "things didn't look good" and that he loved them all. The passengers then forced the plane down, where it crashed in a field near Shanksville, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, killing all aboard. On September 22, 2001, United States Senator John McCain delivered a eulogy in honor of Bingham saying, in part, "It has been my fate to witness great courage and sacrifice for America's sake, but none greater than the selfless sacrifice of Mark Bingham and those good men who grasped the gravity of the moment, understood the threat, and decided to fight back at the cost of their lives." Bingham had been a champion rugby player in college, and had helped his University of California at Berkeley team earn two national titles. Nicknamed "Bear Trap", he helped recruit and train members of San Francisco's first gay rugby team. He was buried in Madronia Cemetery, Saratoga, California, and his name can be found on the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, and on Panel S-67, South Pool of the National September 11 Memorial in at the site of the World Trade Center, New York City.(bio by: Melanie)